Kim Jong-Un said the manager was a 'defeatist' and had him put to death He had been offering field guidance to managers at a terrapin farm The dictator was angered by their inability to breed any lobsters North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has ruthlessly executed a 'defeatist' terrapin farm owner after reacting furiously to the farm on a tour in May. Following the embarrassing tour, Kim reportedly lashed out at the owner, promising 'grave consequences' for not producing any lobsters. According to Daily NK, the dictator was enraged by the farm not keeping the tanks clean and allowing several baby...

LONDON/MOSCOW/BEIJING, May 23 (Yonhap) — Kim Jong-chol attended an Eric Clapton concert in London for the second time this week, but where the brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un headed Saturday remained unknown. He had been scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Saturday from Moscow on his way to Pyongyang, a source with knowledge of the stopover said. However, the name of Jong-chol was not on the registry of the flight from London to Moscow, according to the source. He also wasn’t seen at the Beijing airport Saturday.

Photographs showing Kim Jong-un proudly watching as a North Korean missile was launched from an underwater submarine were manipulated by state propagandists, experts claimed on Tuesday. German aerospace experts said photos of the launch were "strongly modified", including reflections of the missile exhaust flame in the water which did not line up with the missile itself. “Considering the track record of North Korean deceptions, it seems sensible to assume that any North Korean SLBM [submarine-launched ballistic missile] capability is still a very long time in the future, if it will ever surface,” Markus Schiller and Robert Schmucker, of Schmucker Technologie,...

North Korean defense minister Hyon Yong Chol made a mistake: he fell asleep at an official event at which Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un was present. Kim, keen on sending a strong message amid rumors that his grip on absolute power may be slipping, reportedly decided that the appropriate punishment for napping during a rally is execution by anti-aircraft gun. If true, this would mark the latest in a series of “purges” which seem to lend some credence to the notion that Kim’s family name is no longer sufficient when it comes to securing absolute power and universal admiration both from...

South Korea's spy agency told the country's lawmakers Wednesday that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un executed his defense chief for falling asleep during a meeting and talking back to the young leader. Lawmaker Shin Kyoung-min says that officials from the National Intelligence Service told a closed-door parliamentary committee that People's Armed Forces Minister Hyon Yong Chol was killed by anti-aircraft gunfire with hundreds watching at a shooting range at Pyongyang's Kang Kon Military Academy in late April. Shin was one of the lawmakers who attended the briefing. The office of another lawmaker, Lee Cheol Woo, released similar information about...

North Korea's Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol has been executed for showing disloyalty to leader Kim Jong-un, South Korea's spy agency has told parliament. MPs were told Mr Hyon was killed on 30 April by anti-aircraft fire in front of an audience of hundreds, the Yonhap news agency reports. It said Mr Hyon had fallen asleep during an event attended by Kim Jong-un and had not carried out instructions. The news comes weeks after the reported execution of 15 senior officials.

N. Korea has executed its defence chief on treason charges, Seoul's National Intelligence Service was quoted as telling lawmakers, in the latest of a series of high-level purges since Kim Jong Un took power after his father's death in 2011. Hyon Yong Chol, who heads the isolated country's military, was purged and then executed by firing squad with an antiaircraft gun, watched by hundreds of people, South Korean media reported on Wednesday, citing the NIS's comments to a parliamentary panel. Hyon, who spoke at a security conference in Moscow in April, was said to have shown disrespect to Kim by...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year as punishment for challenging his authority, South Korea's spy agency told a closed-door parliament meeting on Wednesday. A vice minister for forestry was one of the officials executed for complaining about a state policy, a member of parliament's intelligence committee, Shin Kyung-min, quoted an unnamed National Intelligence Service official as saying. "Excuses or reasoning doesn't work for Kim Jong Un, and his style of rule is to push through everything, and if there's any objection, he takes that as a challenge to authority and comes...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea accused Mexico on Wednesday of illegally detaining one of its ships with some 50 crew and warned it would take "necessary measures" to release the vessel, which United Nations sanctions monitors say belongs to a blacklisted shipping firm.

Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un was seen at the controls of one of the Korean People's Air Force Antonov An-2 aircraft while on an inspection visit to an aircraft maintenance plant last week, and analysts in South Korea say that Pyongyang has updated the colour scheme of the vintage planes, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reports.

The tyrant, who lives in luxury while his people starve, is recruiting beautiful young females to cater to his every sexual whim, it has been reported.A South Korean newspaper has reported that the tyrant, who lives in luxury while his people starve, is recruiting beautiful young females to cater to his every sexual whim. It is believed Kim disbanded the group who entertained his father Kim Jong-Il when he came to power in 2011. But now Kim, who is married to singer Ri Sol-ju and has a daughter, has resurrected the tradition and sent out his officials to recruit "tall...

Kim Jong Un's latest hack job created another international incident. North Korea watchers combing through the supreme leader's appearance at a politburo meeting Wednesday were struck by Kim's new look. Kim was photographed with shrunken eyebrows the size of emoticons and cartoonishly high hair.

A quiet revolution may be under way in North Korea. The loud one we know about - it's been going on since the Soviet Red Army wrested the northern half of the peninsula from Japanese control in 1945. The Kim dynasty has espoused communism and shouted its merits ever since. But now, surprisingly, it seems that capitalism is growing in the country - quietly, of course. Kim Jong-un has looked north over the Chinese border and decided that market reforms along the lines of those allowed by his comrades in Beijing may allow the preservation of the current structure but...

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has accepted an invitation to attend a ceremony in Moscow on May 9 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. The invitation was extended by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and will be the young dictator's first overseas trip since he became head of state after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011. While other world leaders might be reluctant to extend a welcoming hand to a pariah state that frequently threatens to turn the capital cities of its enemies to "seas of fire", Mr...

Sony’s controversial comedy flick earned $31 million in online sales and $5 million in theaters despite cyber threats and a wide theatrical release. The online sales figure marks the most lucrative digital release for a Hollywood film ever. Sony Pictures' "The Interview" has made more than $31 million from its online and on-demand release, according to the studio. Sony announced digital figures Tuesday for the film spanning its first 11 days of release since debuting Dec. 24. Sony had previously said the film made $15 million in its first four days online, so demand for the Seth Rogen comedy has...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is a “victim” of bad publicity, according to Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor and U.N. ambassador. “He has been the victim, Kim Jong Un, of a lot of bad press, a lot of bad international attention, with the Sony hacking, with [being] taken to the International Criminal Court by some U.N. countries, a number of other very destabilizing moves that he has made, shooting the missiles, nuclear testing,” Richardson said on Friday on MSNBC’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall.”

Brow you see them: Kim Jong-un sports bizarre shrunken eyebrows in 2015 speech PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 January, 2015, 9:15am UPDATED : Friday, 02 January, 2015, 1:47pm Alex Millson alex.millson@scmp.com When Kim Jong-un delivered his New Year message offering to participate in high-level talks with South Korea, the setting, his outfit and posture were all strikingly similar to those he adopted exactly two years earlier. Two things, however, appeared radically different - the North Korean leader’s eyebrows. In what appeared to be a case of severe over-plucking, Kim’s brows appeared to be significantly shorter than on earlier occasions, sitting above...

Kim Jong-un is said to have mastered the art of driving a car by the age of three, and now footage broadcast on North Korean state television appears to show that he is also a skilled pilot. In the video, which was originally broadcast on Tuesday, Kim can be seen looking through paperwork as he makes preflight checks before apparently taking control of the aircraft. Local media reported that Kim piloted the plane and landed it by himself as two assistants sat next to him.

In July of 1870, King Wilhelm sent Foreign Minister Bismarck an account of his meeting with a French envoy who had demanded that the king renounce any Hohenzollern claim to the Spanish throne. Bismarck edited the report to make it appear the Frenchman had insulted the king, and that Wilhelm rudely dismissed him. The Ems Telegram precipitated the Franco-Prussian war Bismarck wanted. Words matter. And if a picture is worth a thousand words, how much greater impact can a motion picture have? We are finding out. Egypt has banned "Exodus: Gods and Kings," the $140 million 20th Century Fox biblical...

<p>North Korea on Saturday compared President Obama to a “monkey in a tropical forest” as it blamed the administration for disrupting its Internet access amid a hacking dispute related to the movie “The Interview.”</p>
<p>The North Korean government has been fiercely critical of the film, a comedy involving a plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jong Un, but has denied responsibility for a recent cyberattack on Sony Pictures.</p>

Report: Dennis Rodman Threatens to Sue 'Glorious Leader' Makers December 23, 2014 - GamePolitics Staff TMZ reports that former bestie to North Korean leader Kim Jung Un Dennis Rodman says that his friendship is over and doesn't want to be associated with him - even in a video game. The video game he doesn't want to be part of is Glorious Leader, a side-scrolling action game featuring the infamous North Korean leader. In fact, the former basketball star and on-again off-again wrestler and reality TV star says that he will sue the makers of the game if they include him...

According to The Daily Beast, as well as a handful of Twitter accounts run by movie theaters, Paramount Pictures has apparently informed theaters that they’re not authorized to air Team America: World Police. The film, which was the brainchild of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, makes gratuitous fun of North Korea and its previous leader, Kim Jong-il. The Paramount decision comes on the heels of Sony’s decision to halt release and distribution of its own film, The Interview, a comedy that depicts that assassination of current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Anonymous sources, believed to be from...

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has invited the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to Moscow next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in the second world war, the Kremlin’s spokesman said on Friday. It would be Kim’s first foreign visit since taking the helm of the reclusive east Asian state in 2011. His personal envoy travelled to Moscow last month as part of efforts by the two Cold War-era allies to improve relations. “Yes, such an invitation was sent,” a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told the state news agency, Tass. Russia marks the...

The hackers behind a devastating cyberattack at Sony Pictures have sent a new message to executives at the company, crediting them for a "very wise" decision to cancel the Christmas day release of "The Interview," a source close to the company told CNN. The email message was received by Sony's top executives on Thursday night and was obtained by CNN. The source said that the company believes the email was from the hackers because it followed a pattern of previous messages, sent to a list of particular executives and formatted in a particular way. A Sony spokesman declined to comment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Moscow next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War Two, the Kremlin's spokesman said on Friday. It would be Kim's first foreign visit since taking the helm of the reclusive east Asian state in 2011. His personal envoy came to Moscow last month in the framework of efforts by the two Cold War-era allies to improve relations.

Putin Spokesman Confirms Kim Jong-un Invited to Visit Moscow Reuters Dec. 19 2014 16:21 Last edited 16:23 Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to Moscow next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the Kremlin's spokesman said Friday. It would be Kim's first foreign visit since taking the helm of the reclusive east Asian state in 2011. His personal envoy came to Moscow last month in the framework of efforts by the two Cold War-era allies to improve relations. "Yes, such an invitation was sent,"...

HOLLYWOOD (KCNA) — The Revolutionary Artists Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists are happy to announce that His Excellency Kim Jong-un will host the 87th annual Academy Awards. This will be the first time a supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has led the ceremony, but it most certainly will not be the last. “All peoples celebrate Dear Leader’s most humble decision to host the Oscars,” said Sony Pictures Chairman and CEO Michael Lynton. “We have witnessed his strength and honor from afar and welcome the divine opportunity to explode our love in...

By gum, he sounds like presidential material to me. Your move, Jeb. .@SonyPictures donÂ’t cave, fight: release @TheInterview free online globally. Ask viewers for voluntary $5 contribution to fight #Ebola.â€” Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) December 18, 2014 More than 13,000 retweets as I write this. Clearly thereâ€™s a demand for countermeasures among an American public that doesnâ€™t like the idea of foreigners, especially savages like the Kim cabal, holding veto power over their culture. (Too bad China, Kimâ€™s chief patron, already sort of does.) Am I right, though, in thinking that no major Republican pol aside from Romney has said anything...

Sony’s capitulation in the face of threats by unidentified sources, who are presumed to support the odious Kim dynasty, serves to confirm what most of us have known for some time. Namely, the extent of allowable political discourse in popular culture is inextricably linked to the willingness of the objects of political criticism to violently suppress that criticism. Or, at the very least, intimate the unpleasant nature of the response in store for those willing to offer a dissenting voice. An interview the iconic Indo-British author and apostate Salman Rushdie did with Irshad Manji several years ago is worth watching...

A rogue nation targeted a multinational corporation and won. North Korea has almost certainly ordered the massive cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, stealing and publicly dumping enough data to make a dent in the company’s stock price. North Korea cannot challenge the United States militarily, despite what movies have portrayed. Regardless of their saber-rattling, and America’s reduced presence on the Korean peninsula, a real attack of any substance against our ally South Korea (or Japan for that matter) would bring a suicidal level of retribution on the North, and they know it. But they’ve found a vein where they can draw...

North Korean defectors are planning to attach DVDs of The Interview to 15-foot helium balloons, which they will send over the border into their home country. Fighters for a Free North Korea, led by former government propagandist Park Sang Hak, has for years used the tactic to smuggle transistor radios, DVDs and leaflets into North Korea. If all goes to plan, the latest move will see dozens of copies of the Seth Rogen movie released from South Korea and drifting for several hours before scattering over Pyongyang.

Fans of Seth Rogen and James Franco are going to have a harder time seeing the guys' latest funny film, The Interview, as several movie theaters are refusing to play the movie. The Thursday premiere of The Interview at New York City's Landmark Theater was canceled after threats alluding to attacks of 9/11 were made by hackers responsible for the leaks of private Sony documents. Rogen and Franco's new comedy is about two journalists who set out to assassinate the North Korean president, and since the recent promotion of the movie, Sony Pictures has faced tremendous pressure to pull the...

A North Korean defector gives a horrible account of how people with mental or physical disabilities are seen as a stain on the nation's image and are therefore used for performing experiments before being deliberately neglected until they die. "Disabled children are being taken away, suffering indescribable things and dying," said Ji Seong-ho, who escaped North Korea in 2006 after losing his left leg above the knee and his left hand at the wrist. Ji, the founder of the organization Now, Action, Unity, Human Rights, or NAUH, who was in London this week to protest outside the North Korean embassy,...

Kim Yo-jong grows in clout as brother relapses PYONGYANG ODYSSEY Dec 10,2014 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is experiencing a relapse of his recent health problems, South Korean government officials said Monday. According to the Ministry of Unification, Kim was limping severely in a video clip recently aired by the state-run Korean Central TV. He was limping particularly painfully at an event with female pilots that took place at the end of last month. The Rodong Shinmun, the Workers’ Party’s newspaper, reported Kim’s visit to the air base on Nov. 28 with photos, but no video was aired until Sunday...

Imagine living your entire life using the name that was given to you at birth and then having the government tell you that you have to change it. We’re not at that point in the United States (yet), but in North Korea, that’s exactly what everyone with the name “Jong-Un” is being forced to do. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un apparently loves his name so much that he’s decided that no one else can use it. Since Jong-un is quite a popular name in the country, it looks like a lot of people are going to have to look for...

Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations: Alex Wagner has demonstrated that Barack Obama is no kind of emperor or dictator . . . compared to Kim Jong Un, the brutal ruler of perhaps the world's worst regime, North Korea. Wagner was riffing off the news that Kim has banned North Korean parents from naming their children Jong Un and ordered those already bearing the name to change it. After describing other elements of Kim's cult of personality, Wagner concluded: "to all the detractors who compare our American president to an emperor and a dictator, this is what a...

N.Korea's Nasty Young Rulers Kim Yeo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, had been appointed a vice director in the Workers Party Central Committee. Until now, she was referred to only as a "senior official." The position is equivalent to a vice minister in the South. But Kim Yeo-jong is only 27 years old. Her father, former leader Kim Jong-il, was appointed vice director in the party when he was 32, and her aunt, Kim Kyong-hui when she was 30. The North Korean press did not say which department Yeo-jong is in charge of, but officials here...

Kim Jong-Un's aunt 'died of a stroke as she argued with him on the phone about execution of her husband' Claimed Kim Kyung Hui died from stroke after arguing with Kim Jong Un She was furious about the execution of her husband, Jang Song Thaek He was killed last year on charges of trying to overthrow the government Defector said Ms Kim had a stroke while on the phone to her nephew She had been one of the most prominent figures in the oppressive regime By Thomas Burrows for MailOnline Published: 12:56 GMT, 29 November 2014 | Updated: 13:59 GMT,...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister named as senior official Kim Yo Jong named as a departmental vice director within ruling party's Central Committe The Associated Press Posted: Nov 27, 2014 5:55 AM ET| Last Updated: Nov 27, 2014 5:55 AM ET North Korea has revealed that leader Kim Jong-un's younger sister is a senior official in the ruling Workers' Party, strengthening analysts' views that she is an increasingly important part of the family dynasty that runs the country. State media on Thursday referred to Kim Yo Jong as a departmental vice director within the party's Central Committee. Analysts say...

[WSJ] ‘The Interview’: Comedy Gold in North Korea November 26, 2014 Clowns behind enemy lines have always helped us fear evil empires a little bit less. Charlie Chaplin mocked the Nazis in the “The Great Dictator” (1940) and Jack Benny did, too, in “To Be or Not to Be” (1942). Bill Murray and Harold Ramis made mayhem behind the Iron Curtain in “Stripes” (1981). Now James Franco and Seth Rogen infiltrate North Korea and parody its leader Kim Jong Un in “The Interview.” “For decades, people have used humor to enlighten political situations,” says Mr. Rogen, who also co-wrote and...

Kim Jong-un tours museum of US 'cannibal' atrocities North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has described Americans as "cannibals" after visiting an anti-US museum in Pyongyang By Leon Siciliano, and AFP, video source ITN 2:36PM GMT 25 Nov 2014 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, under pressure over Pyongyang's human rights record, has toured a museum dedicated to alleged atrocities by US forces during the Korean War, state media said Tuesday. The visit to the Sinchon Museum of United States War Atrocities was aimed at rousing the whole country "to an all-out anti-US struggle," the state-run KCNA news agency said. It comes...

Russian FM: Putin ready for summit with N.K. leader Published : 2014-11-21 09:28 Updated : 2014-11-21 09:28 Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Moscow's top diplomat said Thursday after holding talks with Kim's special envoy. Russia confirmed that it is ready for contact with North Korea at various levels, including the highest level, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency whether his discussions with the North's special envoy, Choe Ryong-hae, included the possibility of Kim's visit to Russia. Lavrov also said that the...

He grins, he fumes, he fights — and through it all, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dances his way in and out of preposterous situations. That's the premise of a video that has become popular in China and reportedly sparked a protest from North Korea. Citing "a source in China," the Chosun Ilbo reports that "the North feels the clip, which shows Kim dancing and Kung-Fu fighting, 'seriously compromises Kim's dignity and authority.'"

Kim Jong-un abandoning Xi Jinping to chase Putin Staff Reporter 2014-11-18 15:11 (GMT+8) Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin. (Internet photo) North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un appears to be switching his diplomatic focus from China to Russia and is attempting to line up a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, reports Duowei News, a Chinese political news outlet based overseas. The 31-year-old dictator, who has reappeared on the scene following a mysterious health-related absence, sent his special envoy Choe Ryong-hae to Moscow on Monday for an eight-day trip with undisclosed intentions, according to a report from South...

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un to Visit Moscow and Meet Putin By Gopi Chandra Kharel November 14, 2014 14:56 IST North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is sending a special envoy to Russia next week before his own possible visit to Moscow, reports from Russia, China and the Korean peninsula suggested on Friday. Kim plans to send a top Communist Party official to Russia next week as his special envoy, according to Moscow's foreign ministry. But this official North Korean trip is likely to be a prelude to a visit to Moscow by the North Korean leader himself, some observers in...

Kim Jong-un accountable for massive human rights atrocities, says UN Comments by special rapporteur in North Korea are strongest yet about supreme leader’s responsibility for abuses Reuters in Seoul The Guardian, Thursday 13 November 2014 08.30 GMT A UN investigator has said there is enough evidence to hold North Korean leader Kim Jong-un accountable for “massive” human rights atrocities committed by the state. The comments by Marzuki Darusman, special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, are some of the strongest yet from the UN about Kim’s responsibility for what they say are widespread abuses. A UN inquiry concluded in...